I recently purchased a copy of Luis Rey's book. I've never read it before, but I knew how big of deal it is to many pre-internet fans and wanted it for historical reference. I found a copy for about $14 on eBay (1993 edition) which was good enough for me! I read the whole thing in just a couple of hours. Having been a hardcore fan only since 2015 myself, the Year of LZ blog has always been a big point of reference for me, and it was fascinating to basically be reading the prototype of that blog. In the write-up about the Copenhagen 1971 show, he mentions that Gallows Pole is played with the 12-string neck of the EDS. This is the first time I've heard that. I listened to Four Sticks and Gallows Pole today. The same guitar was almost certainly used for both songs as there only a few seconds pause between them. It definitely sounds like the 12-string could have been used for these songs, but I can't tell for sure. Anyone else who is more guitar savvy know?

It's in the first pinned comment.

Led Zeppelin Rarities posted this fabulous compilation today. Give it a listen... the sound is incredible!

This show really does not have a definitive version out there (that I've heard at least). Which is a shame because it's one of the best of the tour. I think Nite Owl would be the man for the job. His matrixes are the best I've ever heard... everything he has touched so far turned to gold.

Steve... since this thread is over 10 years old and a lot of information about this time period has been uncovered during that time, can you post a short timeline of events covering these two weeks? Just so you can bring us up to date on all the info that’s been posted in this thread... some of which has been disproven. Thanks!

I wondered if he really did have the red one in that shot or if my eyes were fooling me. It's just barely visible. Since Robert said "Good Evening" right after that, I'd bet the pause to switch guitars was very brief. Maybe Raymond had seen the broken string ahead of time and had the red one ready to go. With all the new sources popping up, the 27th being one of them would be a real treat!

Well I don’t know... the description doesn’t match my compilation. I have way more than just Black Dog from the 28th, and Moby Dick is the complete Ledsox merge. If they did use mine, joke’s on them, because I’m already working on some updates and may have a v1.2 released soon.

I wonder what show that snipped of Dazed was from at the end of the video...

If anyone else wants the download link, send me a PM. Specify MP3 or FLAC when you do.

I'm very sorry I haven't posted the FLAC files here yet. I've been doing the exact opposite of quarantine this past week. I'm a contractor... so if I don't work, I don't get paid. And I'm about to get laid off from my main job, so I've been working extra this week to get as much bread as possible before that happens. But I will start working on getting the FLAC files together tonight and hopefully have them uploaded tonight or tomorrow. I'll re-upload the MP3 files to since the link is now dead. Just to be clear, the music files I was working with were FLAC files rendered to MP3, so all I have to do is go back to my Audacity projects and render the files in FLAC. So there won't be any converting MP3s to FLAC, I promise. While we're on the subject, what level (1 through 10) and bit depth (16 or 24 bit) are the best to render FLAC? I'm very happy everyone is enjoying it! Hopefully if some new remasters or sources come our way soon, I'll be able to update the comp for an even better listening experience! Some ideas I have include splicing Stairway and SIBLY from both nights. But since the soundboard tracks sound quite different from each other from night to night, I decided not to do that for v1.0. Maybe someday though... sooner rather than later!

Tomorrow I will upload some FLAC files for those who would prefer that option. To further elaborate, I don't use FLAC very much because my iTunes (which is the main way I listen to music) cannot play FLAC or WAV files, so it's always MP3 for me. That's why FLAC didn't even really cross my mind to provide initially. It's just not on my radar much. Am I correct in assuming most people here use FLAC to burn to CD?

I’ve just never mixed with FLAC because it takes up more space on my computer, and I was always expected to turn in audio projects in college as 256 MP3s. Sorry... Glad you’re all enjoying it though!

Nearly five years in the making... How The East Was Won, my compilation of the legendary Osaka shows! Way back in 2015, when I first became a hardcore Zep fan, I heard the Osaka shows for the first time and have dreamed since then of having both shows combined into the greatest live album ever. The first night I started working on it, I became a bit emotional knowing that one of my dream projects was finally coming together. And now I'm finally finished and proud to share it with all of you! About 75% of the music comes from the soundboard sources, which was as much as I could possibly do. The rest of it comes from the best sounding versions of the stage source I could find. The versions used for the 29th are Ledsox, Winston, and Wendy; the 28th is the LZ Rarities remaster, and I thank them all for their hard work! As the soundboards sound a bit different from each other, all songs are the full version from the respective night I chose with the exception of Dazed and Confused. Most of the song is from the 29th, except the last 4 minutes which are from the 28th. I decided not to fill in the gap in the soundboard with the stage source since this section of the song was performed better on the 28th anyway. There are one or two more songs I'd like to try and splice from both nights if the boards are ever remastered to sound as similar to each other as possible, but overall, this is at least 90% what I wanted the album to sound like almost from the very beginning. Hopefully v1.0 won't be the last (surely the rest of the WLL soundboard will show up sooner or later), but even if it is, I am very happy with it and I hope you enjoy it! https://we.tl/t-lvnmoa8sEd I will be sharing this on other music forums, but since this was the first LZ forum I joined, you saw it here first!

Led Zeppelin Boots is ZepHead315 on this forum. He is, without a doubt, the best LZ channel on YouTube. I love how he has reached a whole new generation who may not have heard Zep’s greatest moments on stage before. There’s also a lot of unique shows he brings to the table. Case in point... two of the very first full shows he uploaded to his channel were Baltimore 1973 (which is not available on many torrent sites) and the audience source of Seattle 1977 rather than the old video source. To answer your second question, while everyone you named has done some fantastic remasters (making it hard to single-out one of them), Lirodendron has probably worked the best magic on soundboards that are the most dull-sounding. A compilation he did of the 1973 tour contains Stairway from 5/31 and Thank You from 7/29. These two shows are amongst the worst soundboards from the tour but he made the respective songs from them shine. I’d love to hear these full shows remastered by him.

I think it's safe to say, with Plant basically nailing The Wanton Song here, that this could be one of the best shows of 1975. Sure, it definitely won't be Page's best show ever, but with Wanton, Levee, possibly How Many More Times, and any other surprises that may be in store, in crystal clear sound no less, this would be the epitome of awesome! I'm praying more surfaces soon...

I will definitely be compiling a merge of the two shows as soon as possible. We’ll see how it turns out before I decide if I want to share it. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who is doing so. I plan on only using the soundboard sources for the music as much as possible, meaning the 929 stage source will only be used for Whole Lotta Love and Thank You (and dialogue in between songs). While there are much worse songs than Thank You to be lacking a soundboard source, a majority of WLL has the worst mix of the stage source. But it suddenly sounds great once You Shook Me starts... what’s with that?? Of the versions I have listened to so far, it is Winston’s first remaster (Arigatou) that has Plant the most audible during WLL, so that’s likely the one I’ll use. However, if anyone has another suggestion, let me know so I can do some comparing.

This cancelled tour has been a subject of my interest lately. I have fully realized just how different the band’s history would have been if the car accident had never happened. Just last night I was reading about the era between the 1975 and 1977 tours in When Giants Walked The Earth. It really is a wonder the band didn’t break up in 1976. I guess all of the planned tour dates have never been confirmed. I haven’t been able to find a full list yet. And it appears not many tickets had been sold yet by the time the tour was cancelled. But based on the dates that are known, I think the tour would have looked something like this: August 23/24 - Oakland August 27 - Tempe August 29 - Kansas City August 31 - Atlanta September 1 - Tampa September 2 - Louisville September 4 - New Orleans September 6 - Pasadena September 8 - Denver September 9 - Oklahoma City Has anything actually been written about what Jimmy was planning with the set? Since there were no rehearsal, I’d guess that most of it is speculation. I think it would have been similar to the EC shows with a few switches. Some additional PG songs like Ten Years Gone, Night Flight or Wanton Song. Since I’ve Been Loving You probably would have been added back and Dazed discarded. The EC performances of the song were average. It seems every member of the band not named Jimmy were pretty tired of it. The 1975 renditions of HMMT were really good and could have gotten better over time if kept around. This would have been a fresh and welcome addition to the set. I think this could have been a great tour if only.

No, the photos you have as the 28th are the 24th. The stage and background gives it away. Bonham and Jones outfits in the Friends picture matches the other ones from the 29th so I guess that one is confirmed.

I just spent a long time comparing photos from various websites and this is what I came up with... Plant didn't wear the sun shirt on 9/29. This photo shows Plant wearing the same shirt he did on 9/23 and 9/27... and it's definitely from 9/29 as the song being played is Friends. It would appear that Plant wore the sun shirt on 9/24... the banner showing the bands name that stretches behind the stage matches the one on 9/23. Other photos of Page and Jones that are labeled as Osaka on the official website, are in fact also 9/24. Also this one of all three of them. As for the photos of Page wearing the blue shirt with red lines, these are not from Tokyo or Hiroshima, as the stage does not match. That leaves only 9/29 as the possible match.

I just listened to this show for the first time ever... and wow! Where did that performance come from? All four members are ON! And even though Plant's range is limited, his power is all there! Page and Bonham are playing really fluidly tonight. TSRTS is the best example of this... Page's licks are more colorful sounding and Bonham is really energetic. I thought I was listening to a 1973 show for a minute there. Dazed is slow and plodding as Page seems to have over-indulged backstage during Moby Dick. He's holding Bonham back during the second half of the song. Bonham unleashes his pent-up energy during the return to the main riff. But other than this and a rather sloppy Black Dog solo, Page's playing was excellent. I noted early on this was a very "good-vibey" show like 1977, but in contrast to 1973, in which the crowd was more dead and Plant got kinda pissy with them a few times. His comment about the quaaludes before Dazed made me laugh. He then introduces the following song as one of the first things they ever did in a little room in London in 1968. Then coincidentally, Page hints at the actual very first song in said room. That was really amusing... Great show! Just became one of my favorites of 1975, and it's almost certainly Bonham's best show of the tour. P.S. Bring on Houston!

Well I’ll be darned... https://www.discogs.com/Led-Zeppelin-Gallows-Pole/master/892282 Thanks for the info! I wonder how many of those exist.

This may have been discussed before, because surely I can't be the only person that has noticed this... During this famous Forum show, taking place just over a month before LZ III was released, there is an audience member that numerously shouts a request for a song that he shouldn't have even known existed yet... Gallows Pole. This can best be heard on the TMOQ recording. It happened after Bring It On Home (a moment which didn't make it onto the original LP) and immediately before What Is And What Should Never Be. Maybe other times too, but I don't know offhand. Plant may have even heard this request after BIOH because he addressed the people "shouting obscenities" right after that. How the heck did this person know about Gallows Pole? Both possibilities I can think of don't sound very plausible, but who knows... The most unlikely of the two is that the person somehow got his hands on a promo copy of the third album. But I don't believe these would have been sent out yet since the mixing had been done just days prior. The other is that this person also attended the San Diego show the day before and they played the song as the second encore, after the recording ended. This also seems unlikely given the unruly crowd which forced them to drop Bron-Yr-Aur from the set that night. I don't believe the lads would have rewarded them with a second encore after that. But imagine if a recording of that surfaced one day! What do you guys think?

I don't believe Plant gave a bad performance prior to 1973, but these choices are what is generally considered to be his best shows. My choice, hands down, is Belfast.

No, I don’t think I have.

I have long sought a decent recording of the Dallas gig on May 18, 1973, as it's one of the only show in which I know someone who attended. The only known recording is a soundboard cassette which ends after Stairway. Unlike most of the surrounding shows in which the soundboards sound very good (Mobile, Ft. Worth, Denver) the Dallas recording is one of the worst ones I had ever heard. That is until ZepHead315 kindly sent me a digital recording from the supposed first gen tape he had recently acquired. It became apparent why most releases of this show sound very compressed and tinny... the tape has much more hiss on it than usual (possibly as a result of years of poor preservation). Pretty much all releases remove the hiss, but at an expense to the music. While this is the best form I have heard this show in, it's still far from perfect. The crowd is barely audible, Page's guitar in the mix is inconsistent, and the overall sound is still more compressed than usual. With guidance from ZepHead, I made some improvements by adding reverb and treble for more atmosphere and clarity. My goal is to give this recording to the person I know who attended the gig, and I'll add songs from the previous show (Houston) to make a complete concert. Here's a sample I prepared for ZepHead, and he suggested I post it here too... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kigk91s_isM Again, the sound isn't perfect, but it's the best this show will sound... for now. Hopefully a decent audience recording will spring up one day!